In a country of 1.4 billion people that previously had no meaningful record in tennis, Li was a trailblazer, an example to follow where previously there were none. Her success revolutionised the sport in China, which according to the International Tennis Federation now has more tennis players than any other nation in the world. 

But while Li has undeniably been an inspiration, she is also a tough act to follow. In Melbourne, Zheng was unable to mark the 10th anniversary of her fellow countrywoman’s Australian Open success with another Chinese victory, losing the final to Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets. But the 21-year-old has given everything in pursuit of her dream, leaving her home in Shiyan at the age of seven to train in Wuhan, some 275 miles away, and immediately her thoughts turned to improving her game, to taking the final step. 

“I just hope next time I can come back as a better tennis player,” said Zheng.

On Saturday afternoon, she did just that. At Roland Garros, the scene of Li’s first major title in 2011, Zheng emerged from the shadow of her celebrated predecessor by defeating Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3, in the process becoming the first Chinese player to win an Olympic gold medal in singles. She did it by meeting the moment; by channelling the disappointment she felt in Australia, where she felt the weight of the occasion all too keenly; by ensuring that, this time, she remained focused and composed.

“I had a lot of nerves [in the Australian Open final,” said Zheng. “My legs were super heavy. I couldn’t perform 50% of my level. But this final was different.

“It’s because of [my] calmness and patience that I was able to get the victory.”

As that analysis might suggest, the match was not a classic. For Vekic, playing the biggest match of her career barely three weeks after contesting what was previously the biggest match of her career, a heart-breaking defeat to Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon semi-finals, inspiration came in fits and starts. A slow start from the 28-year-old set the tone, Vekic surrendering her opening service game with a string of unforced errors, and for the remainder of the afternoon she would be playing catch-up. 

Struggling to find her range in conditions that were breezier than they have been of late in the French capital, Vekic was unable to land her booming forehand with the consistency required to halt Zheng’s march. The baseline exchanges were tightly contested, but too often they went in Zheng’s favour, denying Vekic the chance to build scoreboard pressure. The quality of the world No 7’s defensive play did not help the Croatian’s cause, with Vekic obliged to win each point several times over in the face of Zheng’s tireless retrieving. Inevitably, Vekic was forced to overpress. She would end the afternoon with 31 unforced errors to just 13 winners, a statistic that told its own story. 

Yet for all her evident frustration, it has been a momentous summer for Vekic. Her run to the gold medal match, on a surface where she has never reached a tour-level final – and hard on the heels of a physically and emotionally draining run to a first grand slam semi-final – came only weeks after she considered quitting the game altogether. That nadir came before the French Open, when she felt she was giving everything without getting the results she craved. After defeating second seed Coco Gauff in straight sets, saving a match point in a late-night thriller against Marta Kostyuk, and laying her semi-final demons to rest with an emphatic win over Anna Karolina Scmiedlova, Vekic can have no complaints on that score now.

“After the Wimbledon semi-finals, I had so much pain everywhere that I was debating going to the Olympics, because I thought, ‘In these conditions, there’s no way I can win a medal,’” said Vekic. 

“I had pain in my arm, pain in my ankle. I was sick. Everything was happening all at once. When we came here, our flight was cancelled, and we arrived late. Everything was going wrong. When we had our first practice, I told my coach, ‘I am coughing so bad I can’t make two shots in a row.’ One week later, we have a medal, so it’s been absolutely incredible.”

Zheng too has overcome the odds, saving a match point against Emma Navarro, then battling back from 4-1 down in the decider in the quarter-finals to send Angelique Kerber into retirement. Her semi-final win over Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, where she recovered from 4-0 down in the second set, was her first in seven meetings with the Polish world No 1. If the belief she took from that win sustained her against Vekic, a gold medal will sustain her for a good while longer. 

“When I became the Olympic champion, I felt a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders,” said Zheng. “Mentally, I feel a lot lighter going forward. Finally, I am able to say to my family, to my father, ‘Come on, I just made history!’”

While a childhood dream has been realised, however, there remains more to do. Zheng may have eclipsed Li as an Olympian – the retired champion’s best result was a fourth-placed finish at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing – but now she must match her childhood idol on the grand slam stage. Now she is the player to emulate, the inspiration for the next generation of Chinese champions. 

“I have always been jealous of history-makers like Li Na,” said Zheng. “No matter what, she’s always the first, because she’s the first Asian player to win a grand slam. And I now become the first Asian player to win Olympic gold. I made history, as well. 

“However, I still have a long way to go, because winning a grand slam is always my dream.”

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In an unsettled, error-strewn performance at Roland Garros, where she has won the French Open in four of the past five years, the Polish world No 1 slipped to a shock straight-sets loss to Qinwen Zheng of China. The defeat ends a run of 25 straight victories for Swiatek on the Parisian clay, where she was last beaten by Maria Sakkari in 2021. 

With her 6-2, 7-5 victory, her sole success in seven meetings with Swiatek, Zheng becomes the first Chinese player in history to reach an Olympic singles final. The 21-year-old, a debutant at the Games, will now face either Donna Vekic or Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in Saturday’s final.

“I finally showed I could beat the world No 1 on her best surface, at Roland Garros,” said Zheng, who pushed Swiatek to a decider in the last 16 of the French Open two summers ago. “That means everything, because I always knew I could do it. But it’s different that you know you can and that you show it. Today, I really showed it. I’m so proud of myself. I am so proud for my country.”

Swiatek too feels the pride of playing for her country, perhaps a little too keenly. Her father, Tomasz, rowed for Poland in the Seoul Olympics of 1988, competing in the quadruple sculls, and family history appeared to weigh heavily on her here, just as it did three years ago in Tokyo, when she was inconsolable following a second-round loss to Paula Badosa. 

If there were any doubt about how much the chance to compete for a gold medal at her favourite venue meant to the 23-year-old, it was dispelled by the evident anxiety in her play. By the 36 unforced errors she made, many of them on her normally uber-reliable backhand. By the way she was unable to capitalise on a 4-0 lead in the second set. By her inability to deal with Zheng’s changes of pace. By the way she broke down afterwards in an interview with Eurosport Poland before declining to speak to the written press.

“I had a hole in my backhand,” said Swiatek, who certainly could have done without the horrible shanked return off that wing that cost her the chance to bring up two break points as Zheng served for the match. “It happens rarely, because it’s usually my most solid stroke.

“I was not technically well positioned because of the stress, and the fact that I played my games day by day. We didn’t have time to adjust that and work on that. I know that’s not the justification, but I tried to correct that during the match. Today, it didn’t work at all. So she used that to win the game.”

Whatever the deficiencies in Swiatek’s game on the day, the excellence of Zheng was undeniable. She handled the pressure of the occasion magnificently, playing with clarity and purpose when she fell behind in the second set, and showed the courage of her convictions in the key moments. That was never more apparent than when Swiatek held a break point to send the second set into a tiebreak. Just as she had done late in her victory over Angelique Kerber in the previous round, Zheng conjured a wonderful drop shot to turn the tide back in her favour, wrong-footing Swiatek, who could not control her attempted pick-up. Moments later, Zheng was falling back in triumph on the clay, another echo of her win against Kerber.

“From 4-0, I think the key was just to play every single point,” said Zheng. “I remember before when I was at this stage, I [would] let it go. I [would] say, ‘OK, I’ve lost this set, let’s fight for the third.’ But today, no. I didn’t have this mentality. I said, ‘I’m just going to fight every single point. Let’s see what’s going to happen. I’m going to play smart, wait for my chance.’ Little by little, I started to get back into the match.”

On Saturday, Zheng, the runner-up at this year’s Australian Open, will bring that newfound mental steel into what she will surely regard as the biggest match of her career. On this evidence, she will take some stopping.

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The biggest casualty came early. Shortly after cutting short a morning practice session, Aryna Sabalenka, seeded third and twice a semi-finalist at the All England Club, withdrew from the tournament with a shoulder injury. The 26-year-old subsequently took to social media to say she was “heartbroken” to have to pull out of her scheduled first-round match against Emina Bektas of the United States.

“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not co-operating,” wrote Sabalenka. “I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse.”

Sabalenka, who also withdrew from her quarter-final match at last month’s Berlin Open with shoulder pain, spoke openly of her physical struggles before the tournament, yet that did little to mitigate the sense of shock surrounding her withdrawal. With the likes of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray all but clambering off the operating table and straight on to the practice courts in recent weeks, we have become inured to top players defying medical probability. But not every physical issue can be surmounted, and Sabalenka’s injury – to the teres major, a small but important muscle that runs under the shoulder joint and controls abduction and internal rotation – has caused her pain on her service, the bedrock of her game. Her frustration has been magnified by the fact that she can perform other movements without pain.

“The most annoying thing is that I can do anything, I can practise, I can hit my groundstrokes, but I’m struggling with serving, so that’s really annoying,” Sabalenka said at the weekend. 

“You don’t feel like you are injured, you know. If you give me some weights, I’m going to go and lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain.”

Sabalenka’s absence will be keenly felt, particularly with four of the world’s top six in the upper half of the draw. Coco Gauff, seeded second, was originally expected to face the two-time Australian Open championin the semi-finals. The American has never been beyond the fourth round, but made a winning start against Caroline Dolehide, dismissing her compatriot 6-2, 6-1 to erase the memory of last year’s first-round exit to Sofia Kenin. Gauff is not getting ahead of herself following Sabalenka’s withdrawal.

“I wouldn’t have probably played her till the semis,” said Gauff. “At that point, it’s just like, ‘This is the semi-finals of a grand slam.’ No matter who you play, it’s going to be a tough person to play. 

“But it is unfortunate that she had to pull out. She’s always a contender in every slam and [on] every surface. She’s such a competitor.”

Sabalenka was swiftly followed out of the tournament by another Belarusian nursing a shoulder injury. Victoria Azarenka, seeded 16th and also a two-time semi-finalist in SW19, had been scheduled to face Sloane Stephens in a battle of former major winners, but was likewise forced to withdraw. Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, despatched Azarenka’s replacement, French lucky loser Elsa Jacquemot, 6-3, 6-3.

That left Karolina Pliskova, a finalist in 2021, as the only remaining player in the bottom half of the draw with experience of the latter stages. However, the 32-year-old Czech was beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 by Diana Shnaider, the recently crowned Bad Homburg champion. If that deepened an already palpable sense of opportunity, the door was pushed further ajar when Lulu Sun, a 23-old-qualifier ranked 123 in the world, defeated Qinwen Zheng, the Chinese world No 8. The New Zealander defeated Zheng, who was seeded to meet Sabalenka in the quarter-finals in a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Among those hoping to capitalise on Zheng’s loss will be Emma Raducanu, the former US Open champion, who was beneficiary of yet another late withdrawal. Originally expected to face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, Raducanu instead found herself up against Mexico’s Renata Zarzua, a lucky loser ranked 98 in the world. The British wild card, ranked 135, prevailed 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 and will next face Elise Mertens of Belgium, the world’s best doubles player, who came from behind to see off Japan’s Nao Hibino 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Should Raducanu advance to the third round, she could meet Maria Sakkari, the Greek ninth seed, who navigated the opening round of a major for only the second time in six attempts with a 6-3, 6-1 win over McCartney Kessler of the United States. 

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Cornet, 34, announced last month that she would retire after Roland Garros, and there was palpable disappointment that she had been pitted against a player who won nine straight games against her when they met on the Parisian clay two years ago. Visibly hampered by an abductor injury on that occasion, Cornet was booed from the court after deciding to stop, an example of the love-hate relationship that French crowds so often seem to have with their own (Cornet had been cheered to the rafters after defeating Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 champion, in the previous round). 

Yet Cornet has always been one to give as she gets – “Sometimes the French audience surprises me, and not always in the right direction,” she sniffed after that defeat – and in reality, the prospect of getting another crack at Zheng, and on Court Philippe Chatrier of all places, felt perfect. Big player, big stage, big moment: it was an occasion made for the Frenchwoman. In 2014, she famously claimed a trio of rapid-fire wins over Serena Williams, the most notable of which came in the third round of Wimbledon. Eight years later, she was still at it, ending Iga Swiatek’s 37-match winning streak on Centre Court, one of 25 wins she has earned over top-10 opposition. With Cornet, there has always been a sense that could beat anyone – with the essential caveat that she could just as easily lose to anyone.

This time, though, there would be no upsetting of the odds. Zheng’s 6-2, 6-1 victory, while more complicated than the scoreline would suggest, ultimately played out much as one might expect from the collision of a 21-year-old Australian Open finalist with a veteran wild-card entry ranked 98 places below her. It didn’t matter. After two decades that have brought six titles, a place in the second week of every major, a career-high ranking of 11th and, perhaps most remarkably, a record 69 consecutive grand slam appearances, Cornet has done enough.

“[It was] exactly how I envisioned it,” said Cornet. “I’m really happy about how everything went. Being able to say goodbye here at home, in front of my family and my friends, it was a big, big [opportunity]. I feel very lucky, very grateful, to be able to end it that way.

“It was a lot of up and downs. Definitely, emotionally it was not easy. Some days I was excited about retirement and some other days I was very scared and very uncertain. Overall, I feel in peace today about it.”

So she should. This was Cornet’s 20th straight appearance at Roland Garros; to put that remarkable longevity in context, she has now played the French Open more times than Nadal, whose own possible farewell she watched through a veil of tears the previous evening. And while she may not have enjoyed the 14-time champion’s success at her home slam – although she did win the junior title in 2007, and twice went on to reach the second week – Cornet’s place in the affections of the oft-fickle French public feels secure.

That much was clear from the warmth with which she was received afterwards, when tournament director Amélie Mauresmo, who defeated her in the second round on her first appearance in the main draw as a 15-year-old wild card in 2005, presented her with a commemorative trophy in an emotional on-court ceremony. 

“It means turning a page for me, 20 years of my life, 20 years of full commitment to my sport,” said Cornet of her retirement. “Since I was 15 and [played] my first Roland Garros, I’ve been living for tennis most of the time, I organised my whole life around it. As I said on the court, it’s a lot of work, a lot of sacrifices, a lot of everything. 

“At the end, when you have to turn that page and you realise that it’s over, it’s a void in a way. You have to fill it in another way and find some stuff that makes you happy. Psychologically, I think it’s one of the most difficult things to handle.

“I’d like to be remembered as a genuine player who shared all her emotions with everyone all throughout her career, whether positive or negative. Someone with a fighting spirit, who is a passionate tennis player, who likes to fight and who is ready to die for it.

“I think I showed it several times, that it was actually my type of character. People may love me or not for that type of personality, but this is what brought me where I am today.”

That character was firmly in evidence against Zheng. There was no shortage of defiance from the Frenchwoman, no lack of passion, of desire, of running. All the familiar ingredients of a Cornet match were there, from the theatrical gestures and the infectious smile, to the court craft and tactical intelligence that have so often made her the scourge of more fancied opponents. But she struggled to live with the power of Zheng, who repeatedly caught her out with sudden surges of explosive pace that were all the more effective for the way she leavened the mix with some deftly executed drop shots. 

The battle lines were drawn from the opening point, where Zheng clumped an unanswerable forehand for the first of 25 winners. That was the cue for a seven-minute struggle that culminated with a Cornet double fault. Zheng held comfortably before spanking another huge forehand to claim a second break, and briefly it looked like a rout to rival the one of two years ago was developing. 

After 29 minutes, however, Cornet held serve for the first time to get herself on the board. For the first time, Zheng’s focus wavered, Cornet taking advantage of some uncharacteristic errors from her opponent to break with a thumping backhand return. That was to be as good as it got for the Niçoise – although with trademark belligerence, she saved three match points before yielding.

She left the sport, as ever, fighting, passionate – and ready to die for it.

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“Not really,” replied the 24-year-old. “It’s too early to say if it’s a big three, big four. I think some years should pass and we all need to continue playing well.”

Years? A cynic might counter that it has taken less than a week to disprove the notion. 

The Dubai Tennis Championships were billed as the first collision of the world’s top four since the Australian Open; instead, as the business end of the tournament heaves into view, Swiatek is the only seeded player left standing. The Polish top seed defeated Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals, where she will be the lone standard bearer for the world’s top 20 and a red-hot favourite to add a second straight WTA 1000 title to last week’s triumph in Doha. Not that the 22-year-old is not getting carried away. 

“I’m not thinking about winning the title, because I try to do everything step by step,” said Swiatek in her on-court interview. “All these players that are playing this tournament are really great, any of us can win. I try just to stay humble and focused on only the next step, and if by any chance I’m going to win the tournament, it’s going to be just an effect. No point in overanalysing that.” 

Be that as it may, not even Swiatek could deny her prospects looked brighter by the end of a day that, after starting with three of the four reigning grand slam champions in contention, ended in utter carnage.

The exodus was led by Marketa Vondrousova, the Czech seventh seed, who saw six match points come and go as she fell victim to an extraordinary fightback from Sorana Cirstea of Romania. It has been a difficult start to the season for Vondrousova, who struggled with sickness in Australia and arrived in Dubai short of match practice. But for an hour or so, the 24-year-old looked every inch the player who stormed to the Wimbledon title last summer. Mixing heavy groundstrokes with short angles, drop shots and lobs, Vondrousova opened up a 6-2, 5-1 lead. 

The emphatic nature of that scoreline was misleading, however. Cirstea had competed fiercely throughout, her power and athletic defensive play keeping the points close even as her unforced errors stacked up. But with defeat seemingly inevitable, the 33-year-old resolved to go down swinging; if she couldn’t win, the least she could do was entertain the fans who continued to chant her name in loud, chopped syllables. Cirstea saved two match points with aces, another with a winning volley, and forced the play on three others to lay the foundations for what she described as “the biggest comeback of my career”.

“I looked over at the clock and I saw it was only one hour of play,” said Cirstea after completing an improbable 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 victory. “I was having such great support. I said, ‘OK, let’s try to win one more game for the public, make it a little bit longer.’ 

“I think that thing took the pressure away from me. I started to find my game.”

By the time Cirstea was done, another Wimbledon champion had exited the tournament without striking a ball after Rybakina withdrew with a gastrointestinal problem. 

“Unfortunately, I was not feeling well overnight,” announced the fourth-seeded Kazakhstani. “Since I am not feeling 100% ready to compete, I have decided to pull out from my quarter-final match.”

Rybakina’s withdrawal means the event is guaranteed at least one unseeded finalist, with Jasmine Paolini of Italy advancing to face Cirstea in what will be the 28-year-old’s first semi-final appearance at this level. Paolini, ranked four places below the Romanian at No 26, has won both their previous meetings.

Vondrousova was later followed out of the tournament by Coco Gauff, the third seed and US Open champion, who was undone by a free-hitting display from Anna Kalinskaya, a Russian qualifier ranked 40th in the world. Kalinskaya, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the previous round, prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to claim her second victory over a grand slam champion in as many days. The Russian, a straight-sets winner over defied an upper back injury to .

In her first appearance on the tournament’s main court, it took time for Kalinskaya to find her range. A brilliant ball-striker who favours high-risk, high-reward tennis, the 25-year-old was unable to find the right balance in the opening set, committing 11 unforced errors and winning barely a quarter of her second-serve points. She was not helped by an upper back injury that required a medical timeout and briefly seemed serious enough to raise doubts about whether she would continue.

Once she settled, though, Kalinskaya was irresistible, her self-belief evident as she controlled the tempo of the baseline exchanges, drilling her backhand with regal authority in the face of Gauff’s dogged retrieving.

“I started a little bit not so confident,” said Kalinskaya, a surprise quarter-finalist at last month’s Australian Open. “I was getting used to the surface. I didn’t get the chance to play on centre court, I felt the speed of the bounce was a bit different. I couldn’t find my timing.  

“In the second set, I calmed down a little bit more and I played point by point till the end of the match. I could feel the tension till the last point. She kept bringing so many balls back, so I had to stay really patient and decide which ball to go and finish the point.”

Having struggled against Karolina Pliskova in the previous round, where she became embroiled in a protracted dispute with French chair umpire Pierre Bacchi, Gauff’s second defeat in four matches concluded a forgettable Middle East swing for the American world No 3. 

With Sabalenka beaten by Donna Vekic in her opening match on Tuesday, the big four becomes a big one. Swiatek now has seven consecutive straight-set wins under her belt and, unlike her peers, appears to have been largely untroubled by the transition from Doha to Dubai. Her caution is understandable, particularly given the power at Kalinskaya’s disposal, but it is hard not to like the Pole’s chances.

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With a bold but controlled performance that underlined her growing ease on the sport’s biggest stages, Sabalenka overwhelmed Qinwen Zheng of China 6-3, 6-2 to defend the Australian Open crown she won last year against Elena Rybakina. 

Across an hour and 16 minutes of explosive serving and blazing baseline play, Sabalenka went from a player who had reached the semi-finals or better at each of the past six slams, to the winner of two of the past three hard-court majors – an epithet with a far more pleasing ring. 

Following in the footsteps of Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty, the 25-year-old also became only the fifth woman this century to claim the title without dropping a set, and the first to retain it since Victoria Azarenka, her fellow Belarusian, in 2013. The winning formula in her grasp, she is joining the ranks of some of the great serial winners.

Zheng too had hoped to emulate a celebrated compatriot, but the 21-year-old’s hopes of marking the 10th anniversary of Li Na’s famous Australian Open triumph with another Chinese success withered in the face of Sabalenka’s corrosive power. It will take a while to sink in, but more glory surely awaits the world No 2.

“I couldn’t even imagine myself, first of all, wining one grand slam – secondly, winning it twice in a row, that’s just crazy,” said Sabalenka. “I’m still trying to process it.”

In fairness, there is much to digest, for Sabalenka’s journey to this point has been nothing if not eventful. At one point, it seemed posterity might remember her as the finest player never to make it beyond the fourth round of a major. Barely had she disproved that theory by reaching the 2021 Wimbledon and US Open semi-finals, than her serve, the bedrock of her powerful game, deserted her. 

Never slow to smile, Sabalenka promptly branded herself “the queen of double faults”. Yet there was a more serious and even useful dimension to that difficult period. Sabalenka’s travails made her mind stronger; once known for having all the shots but lacking the mental toughness, she became a player able to harness her mental strength to buttress her failing game and control her emotional volatility.

“Of course there was really a moment where I really didn’t believe that I’m going to win it one day, especially those periods when I was serving double faults and couldn’t fix my serve,” said Sabalenka. “There was a lot of up and downs. But, you know, I just couldn’t quit.”

Sabalenka’s evolution came to a head in glorious fashion with last year’s triumph in Melbourne, and her emphatic defence of the title feels equally significant. She remained focused as Iga Swiatek, Rybakina and a host of other big names fell like skittles in the opposite half of the draw. She gained a cathartic semi-final win over Coco Gauff, who reeled her in from a set down in last year’s US Open final. And, at the first time of asking, she handled the pressure of defending a grand slam title with a composure that would probably make her unrecognisable to her former self. Now she is on the path to becoming a multiple grand slam winner.

“It’s been in my mind that I didn’t want to be that player who won it and then disappeared,” said Sabalenka. “I just wanted to show that I’m able to be consistently there and I’m able to win another one. I really hope [for] more, more than two right now – but for me [it] was really important. 

“Definitely that year when I was struggling a lot helped me a lot to understand that, even if my serve is not working, I’m able to fight for it, and I have a good return. 

“Right now, when I’m serving a little bit better than that year, definitely I feel more controlled on my serve. Even if I’m down in the score in my serve, or even if someone breaks me, I’m not getting crazy like I used to, and I have this belief that no matter what happens, I’m able to fight for it. I have a lot of weapons, not only my serve.”

All those qualities were on show against Zheng, who found herself a break down in just five minutes despite doing very little wrong. Having opened with three mighty first serves to three different corners, Sabalenka held to love and then began ripping returns and nailing groundstrokes with gleeful abandon. It earned her eight of the first nine points.

Over the course of the match, Zheng won almost three-quarters of her first-serve points and tallied six aces to the Belarusian’s three. As those statistics would suggest, she has a fine first delivery, and in her opening service game she made all but one of her six first serves. So the fact that she was broken regardless did not bode well, especially on an evening when she would land just 53% of her first serves. 

Always outwardly serene, Zheng must have felt increasingly shellshocked as points and games began flying by in a blizzard of big hitting from Sabalenka. The highest-rated player Zheng had faced previously at the tournament was Katie Boulter, the British world No 54; this was a vertiginous ascent up the rankings ladder.

“If you talk about nerves, I was fine,” said Zheng. “I think the difference is Aryna, she has much more, you know, she takes away the rhythm compared to other players.”

There were two small windows of opportunity for the Chinese player. The first came in the third game, where she had Sabalenka on the ropes at 0-40 on her serve. The second came in a passage of about 10 minutes or so at the end of the first set, when she saved three set points on her own serve and a fourth on the Belarusian’s. On each occasion, Sabalenka stood strong, first rallying her way through five straight points to hold for 3-0, then finding a penetrating first serve to seal the set. When Zheng hit three double faults to drop serve again at the start of the second set, the die was cast.

“I think the difference was the beginning, I couldn’t hold the service game,” said Zheng. “Then later on, when I got the chance to break her from 0-40 up, I’m not able to make it. That little moment makes the match so different. 

“If you play against Sabalenka [at] this level, if you don’t take this chance, the match goes away really fast. She’s a really aggressive player; if you let a chance go, it will happen like today.”

It is likely to happen again soon enough. Having harnessed her game and her emotions, Sabalenka can look to the season ahead with greater belief than ever, confident that she has all the tools she needs to seize the opportunities that eluded her last year. Karolina Muchova memorably recovered from match point down to defeat her in the French Open semi-finals, while Sabalenka squandered a one-set lead against Ons Jabeur at the same stage of Wimbledon – but it is hard to imagine those mistakes being repeated.

“I felt like I got super emotional and I just let those semi-finals get away,” said Sabalenka. “But I definitely think that if I’m going to keep working like I’m working right now, and if we’re going to keep building what we are building right now, I’m definitely able to do the same on the clay and on the grass.”

Why not? She’s a multiple grand slam winner now.

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“I love it, I love it” said Sabalenka, the defending champion, of her rematch with Gauff. “After the US Open, I really wanted that revenge.”

Such openness is rare in the ever-guarded world of elite sport. Gunning for revenge is not the done thing, and it takes a certain kind of heart-on-sleeve character, a certain brand of chutzpah, to publicly declare vengeance as a source of motivation. Keegan, who would perhaps recognise in Sabalenka a kindred spirit, never did get the cathartic title win he craved, his Newcastle side entering a late tailspin as he refused to rein in his commitment to all-out attack. Sabalenka lives by a similar philosophy, and it served her well as she claimed a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 victory to move into a second straight final at Melbourne Park, the first woman to do since Serena Williams in 2017.

“I think in New York I played a little bit passive tennis,” said Sabalenka, whose 20 net approaches and 33 winners on this occasion spoke of a woman resolved not to repeat past mistakes. 

“I didn’t put so much pressure on her. I mean, I did in the first set, but then I kind of slowed down and started just trying to play rallies with her, which was not working well. 

“The whole pre-season I was working on those approach shots, on coming to the net and finishing the point [at] the net. I’m super happy that I was able to do that on court today, and I think that’s the difference between these two matches.”

Through to a third consecutive grand slam final on hard courts, Sabalenka, who has yet to drop a drop set at the tournament, will face Qinwen Zheng in Saturday’s final. The 21-year-old from China, seeded 12th, defeated Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 6-4, 6-4.

Unbeaten in 13 matches at Melbourne Park, Sabalenka has steadily grown in stature over the past 17 months, reaching the semi-finals or better at each of the past six majors. But while the odds clearly favour the holder, it will not have gone unnoticed in Zheng’s camp that Sabalenka has also shown a tendency to falter at critical moments. She has squandered one-set leads against Iga Swiatek and Gauff at the US Open, lost to Karolina Pliskova and Ons Jabeur from a set up at at Wimbledon, and missed a match point against Karolina Muchova at last year’s French Open. It is not for want of opportunity that last year’s Australian Open victory remains Sabalenka’s sole success at this level. 

History threatened to repeat itself against Gauff, who clawed her way back from 2-5 down in the opening set to come within two points of clinching it, and fought tigerishly throughout the second. This time, though, Sabalenka would not be denied, even when Gauff produced a brilliant 121mph body serve to stave off a set point at 5-4 in the opener. She kept swinging freely, determined to play the match on her own terms, and her conviction was equally unwavering two games later, with the American serving at 6-5, 30-0. After pounding her way to parity, Sabalenka sustained her momentum into the tiebreak, winning six of the first seven points to establish an unassailable lead. 

An unreturnable serve sealed the set, and the 25-year-old’s belief in her fearsome delivery was equally evident when, after breaking nine games later, she produced two of only four aces on the night to serve out the win.

“I had chances in both sets, but she played better tonight,” said Gauff, who struggled in the previous round against Marta Kostyuk but performed markedly better here, after missing out on the opportunity to climb to a career-high ranking of No 2 in the world. 

“I felt like I did my best with the game plan that I had. I think it just came down to a couple of points, and that’s tennis.”

Like Gauff, Zheng’s previous best run at a major also came in New York, where she reached the quarter-finals last September before falling to Sabalenka in straight sets. That experience served her well against Yastremska, who made an auspicious start to the biggest match of her career, claiming an early break, only to relinquish the advantage immediately with four double faults. Grateful for the second chance, Zheng promptly held to love before forging ahead in the seventh game after the Ukrainian suffered an abdominal injury that required a medical timeout.

“Definitely she has a lot of nice opportunities to win a grand slam,” said Yastremska, 23, of her impressive opponent. “I think she’s a great player. She has powerful shots and a really good serve. 

“If she will be able to stay stable emotionally, and if she will be able to hold her level up like she did today pretty well in important moments, she can win – and she can win, I will say, even pretty easy. But it’s going to be a good fight.”

With Sabalenka seeking to become the first woman to mount a successful title defence since her compatriot Victoria Azarenka in 2013, and Zheng aiming to mark the 10th anniversary of Li Na’s victory by becoming only the second Chinese player in history to lift the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, a good fight is the least it should be.

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Zheng, the 12th seed, fought back from a set down against Anna Kalinskaya to reach the last four at Melbourne Park, a 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-1 victory confirming the deepest grand slam run of her career, following last year’s quarter-final finish at the US Open. Long tipped as a future grand slam champion, she will next face Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Linda Noskova, the Czech teenager who stunned top seed Iga Swiatek in the third round.

“I’m so happy right now, really excited,” Zheng enthused in her on-court interview with Jelena Dokic. “It’s the first time for me, I’m really happy to be in the semi-finals, especially with such a good performance.”

That breakthrough, which puts Zheng within two wins of emulating her childhood idol, follows a surprise meeting with Na, who is in town for the legends’ event and greeted her countrywoman with a convivial pat on the derrière as she was performing a television interview. Zheng, who has said she watched the video of Na’s triumph “more than 10 times” as a young girl but had never previously spoken with her, was evidently inspired by the meeting. She has since gone from strength to strength, and next week she will break into the world’s top 10 for the first time – although she was unaware of that impending milestone until informed by Dokic. 

“Thanks for letting me know that,” said Zheng, before showing something of Na’s mischievous wit. “Nobody tells me anything.” 

Zheng’s hopes of earning a place in the pantheon alongside Na seemed to be in jeopardy early on. She struggled to find her first serve and emerged from the opening set with a win rate of just 42% behind the second, enabling Kalinskaya to bounce back immediately from a pair of early breaks. 

“I lost the first set because I got those early breaks [and] then, later on, I’m not able to keep my serve,” said Zheng. “When I lost the first set, directly, I tried to tell myself, ‘Stay focused. Don’t think too much. Just focus right now.’  

“The first set proved thinking too much was not helping, and you can’t play your best tennis there.”

Having wiped the mental slate clean, Zheng was a player transformed in the second set, raising her level on serve and showed greater composure, patience and quality in the baseline exchanges. Those virtues were never more evident than in the eighth game, where she converted the only break point of the set by maintaining line and length until the right ball presented itself, at which point she caught out Kalinskaya with a sudden and forceful change of direction.

A similar play earned Zheng an early break in the decider, this time off a razor-sharp return, and from there her clarity of purpose and clean, early ball-striking became irresistible, belief draining rapidly from the Russian as she struggled with a right hip injury that required a medical timeout.  

Zheng’s progress in Melbourne has echoed that of Na in 2014, big names toppling all around her until she herself finally became the biggest name left standing, at least in the top half of the draw. For Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka then, read Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula now. 

Nor do the similarities end there: just as Na navigated her way to the title without facing any of her top-20 rivals, so Zheng has arrived in the semi-finals without facing anyone ranked higher than Katie Boulter, the British world No 54.

The omens could not be more encouraging as she prepares to face Yastremska, whose fearless run from qualifying to the last four harks back to Emma Raducanu’s extraordinary title win at the 2021 US Open.

“The feeling is just… I can’t explain in words right now, because there are so many inside,” said Zheng. “Happiness. Of course, I’m proud of myself. But, you know, this is just the beginning.”

It just might be.

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The Polish world No 1 was in upbeat mood in the immediate aftermath of her 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory. Assigned to the unfamiliar environs of the grandstand court, which has less than half the capacity of the Lindner Family Tennis Centre’s 11,400-seat centre court, Swiatek struggled at first to adjust to the attendant noise and bustle, her difficulties compounded by a swirling wind and a quick start by the 24th-ranked Zheng, a gifted 20-year-old from China, who snatched a double break to move 3-0 up in 19 minutes. 

But after committing 23 unforced errors to drop the opener, Swiatek returned from a bathroom break with a new outfit and a new strategy, tightening up her game to rattle through the next two sets. Her relief was reflected in a light-hearted on-court interview in which she credited her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, for the sartorial masterstroke that accompanied the turnaround.

“My coach my coach told me a couple of months ago that after losing a set it might be a good idea to change your outfit, so you can kind of reset and go to the second set in a different vibe,” said Swiatek.

“I thought this was bullshit,” she added, silently mouthing the expletive to the camera with a conspiratorial smile, “but I tried it and it worked – so thank you, coach.”

An hour or so later, however, Swiatek’s entered the interview room in markedly different mood. With an air of despondency, the 22-year-old prefaced her press conference with a breathy appeal for an end to online hate messages. Whatever she had seen in the interim had clearly hit home hard.

“For sure today’s match wasn’t perfect, we all saw that, but the amount of hate and criticism that me and my team get after even losing a set is just ridiculous,” said Swiatek. 

“I want to encourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on the internet. We all sacrifice a lot and we are all working really hard. We are always giving 100% of what we can do, every day. 

“It’s kind of sad for me to see that people I work with, and myself, we are really judged. I would like to encourage people to be more thoughtful and to also focus on the positive side of what we are doing because today, even though I didn’t start the match well, I would love for people to see how I problem-solved and how I really got out of troubles. 

“Even though, for sure, I didn’t feel my best game or that it was going to be a good performance in the first set, I was able actually to do that – and it’s because I’m doing a lot of work, physically and mentally. 

“Also, off court, I’m trying to be the best kind of person and player as possible. I just wanted to encourage people on the internet to be more positive and also see the positive side of what we’re doing.” 

Swiatek, who has shown a refreshing willingness to use the platform provided by her status as the world’s best player to speak out on social issues, undoubtedly deserves credit for addressing the scourge of online abuse. How much difference it will make is, as she acknowledged, another matter. 

In a recent study by the risk intelligence company Crisp, three of the five athletes who received the most online abuse were tennis players: Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Female players typically bear the brunt of the invective, which often includes death threats and discriminatory language.

Ons Jabeur, seeded fifth in Cincinnati, applauded Swiatek’s decision to speak out. The Tunisian, also through to the quarter-finals after Donna Vekic retired due to a viral illness while trailing 2-5, laid the blame firmly at the door of gamblers. 

“I’m glad that Iga is talking about it,” said Jabeur, who will face Aryna Sabalenka in Friday’s night session. “You win, you lose, you get hate messages no matter what you do. 

“We need more humanity, more nicer people in this Earth, but I don’t think you can change the mentality of some betters. They have nothing to do in their life, and they are just spending money on you. Probably, what, they lost a couple of bucks on Iga losing a set? It is frustrating, but it is the reality.”

That is something Swiatek knows all too well. Following her defeat to Barbora Krejcikova in the Dubai final earlier this year, the Pole talked of having a target on her back as she attempted to live up to the expectations created by last season’s 37-match winning streak. 

“I lost in the final and people were surprised – not happy with the performance – and just critical,” said Swiatek. “It made me think that last year, before this huge streak and before winning all these tournaments, I would have been so happy with the result. But because of these comments right now, I felt like ‘Ooh, that’s not enough.’ I’m trying not to read those kinds of things, because I’m happy with the work I’ve put in and how I played.”

It was a theme Swiatek returned to in Cincinnati, where she will face Marketa Vondrousova, the freshly minted Wimbledon champion, for a place in the last four.

“I’m always doing my best and it’s not possible to perform your best game all the time,” said Swiatek. “After Dubai and Doha, when I won a tournament and then was in a final, I was pretty proud of my results. But people really kind of just saw the last match, and I lost in the final and [they thought] I shouldn’t, and so I wish they could see the positive side.”

Watching the transformation in Swiatek’s mood over the course of an hour in which she was laughing and joking one moment, and then downbeat and sombre the next, it was hard not to wish likewise.

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Twice last year Zheng, a rising 20-year-old from China ranked 25th in the world, pushed Swiatek to a deciding set. And as she served to move within a game of levelling at a set apiece against the defending champion in Stuttgart, and Swiatek slipped on the clay to miss her second break point of the game, another three-setter began to look possible. 

Notably, though, the Pole recovered from that wobbly moment, retaining her balance to avoid the indignity of besmirching her smart new monochrome kit with red clay, and that felt like an appropriate metaphor for her performance as she overcame a brief passage of unsteadiness to mark her return from injury with a 6-1, 6-4 victory. 

“I think that up-and-down kind of vibe that we had on court when I lost like two games or three in a row, it’s because I had a break,” said Swiatek, who pulled out of last month’s Miami Open with a rib injury after losing to Elena Rybakina in the last four at Indian Wells.

“I’m very happy I was able to come back, because that’s like the most important thing for me. Even though I may be a little bit rusty, I’m happy I can play good tennis.

“I wouldn’t call anything perfect, because there is always something you can improve. But for sure, even though I had [an] up- and-down [performance], I’m happy that I was solid at the end and I really could be more composed and got my level up.”

Handed a tricky opening assignment at a venue where she won on her debut last season, Swiatek was firmly in control for most of the match, dominating the baseline exchanges and controlling her service games with the depth, spin and precision of her delivery. But with the Pole leading by a set and a break, a controversial overrule by Miriam Bley threatened to alter the flow of the match, the German chair umpire boldly informing Swiatek, one of the tour’s quickest athletes, that she would not have reached a Zheng backhand winner that was wrongly called out initially.

“It went off the line and I don’t think you would have got it, Iga,” said Bley. “Honestly, it was so fast off the line, skidded off the line.”

The world No 1 was entitled to feel unhappy about the decision, which brought up a first break point of the contest for Zheng, and her mood was not improved when a tight call on her first serve immediately went against her. A big forehand approach subsequently set up a simple putaway for Zheng, and for the first time in the match she had something to work with.

It was all Swiatek could do to navigate the next game, a 10-minute epic of five deuces, but navigate it she did, blasting a forehand return to convert her third break point before serving out to wrap up the win in an hour and 26 minutes.

Swiatek, the reigning French and US Open champion, advances to a quarter-final meeting with Karolina Pliskova, the Czech former world No 1, who came through 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5) against Croatia’s Donna Vekic. But there was no such luck for Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, who was forced to retire with a lower back injury while trailing 6-1, 3-1 against Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Haddad Maia will face Ons Jabeur, the third seed, in the last eight.

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